Barbados PM draws attention to small islands concern about state of oceans

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil -- Small island developing states (SIDS) have expressed concern about the state of the world's oceans and marine resources.

Jun 23, 2012

And, this apprehension has been brought to the attention of the United
Nations by Barbados prime minister, Freundel Stuart, using his position
as a member of the UN Secretary General's High-Level Panel on Global
Sustainability.

Stuart told a special event convened at the Rio+20 conference on
sustainable development that, while members of the High-Level Panel
serve in their own capacity, it would have been remiss on his part if he
did not highlight some of the concerns his group of countries (SIDS)
had.

He said that humanity was faced with a crisis of unprecedented
proportions if urgent corrective measures were not taken to prevent the
further decline and potential collapse of the world's ocean system. His
argument being: "global sustainability cannot be achieved nor climate
change addressed effectively without healthy and productive oceans.